We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maggie Omick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maggie below.
Maggie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?
I do take vacations! My husband and I are both small business owners and our biggest life motto is “work hard/play hard.” When I am in work mode, I WORK diligently, consistently, and passionately. I am able to keep a rigorous pace while running a business as a solopreneur, raising a family with two active teenage daughters and connect as a couple in marriage BECAUSE I commit to regular time off. Time off can be a night or two away with just me or also my husband, a local-ish 4-5 night family getaway, or week long adventure. I also schedule in one totally “off” day a month and that’s “off” from everything. I don’t exercise, I don’t cook, I don’t work, I don’t answer life or business emails. I spend the day reading, taking walks with my dogs, enjoying a massage and a long lunch, and resetting. I’m a social worker by trade and with that, understand the importance of boundaries and this includes protecting my time. Unless you are a neurosurgeon, chances are there are no true emergencies in your line of work! So, you can, in fact, step away from your business and you should!
Maggie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Maggie Omick. I’m a social worker by trade and after becoming a mother at 26, I retired from that brief career in child welfare to open my own certified in-home daycare so I could stay at home with my daughters and still bring in income for my family. My husband had just started his career as a chiropractor, so we had a lot of life going on back then. I enjoyed that daycare role for nearly a decade and experimented with different entrepreneurial opportunities during that time (blogging, professional organizing, network marketing, private postpartum doula work) before committing to launching my own postpartum care agency.
At Lake Country Newborns, we help make life with a newborn easier. Whether it’s as an extra set of hands, baby care coaching or getting a good night’s rest, we are here and happy to help. We offer professional postpartum overnight and daytime support for baby and family during the first year of life. We help families find rest and relief as they recenter during their fourth trimester and beyond.
Lake Country Newborns has been built from the ground up by a survivor (me!) of two pretty terrible postpartum recovery periods filled with sleepless nights, a constantly sore left nipple, and fumbling through the transition into motherhood. Ultimately, I came out stronger and able to naturally help families with newborns and little kiddos. With my background in compliance as a social worker, I developed a rigorous onboarding process for all postpartum specialists, ensuring our care is cut above the rest. We are all professionals. We are all moms. We are all here and happy to help. It is an honor to serve families as they adjust to life with their newborn.
I am most proud of the fact that this entire agency has been built on hustle. I opted not to take out a loan or line of credit to start this baby from the ground up. With that, my husband and I invested about $1000 of our own for the initial administrative basics and the rest has been cash flowed as I can. At the start, I set aside a bit of every paycheck from private doula work to save for each and every necessary project that needed to be completed. Once I had enough of those completed and we started serving families consistently, I stepped away from directly working with families and set aside a little bit of every payment that came through for future projects and only commit to things I can afford in cash. I still run the agency this way and while I often wish for an anonymous angel donor to drop $10,000 my way, I have a great feeling of pride knowing Lake Country Newborns was built brick by brick like this!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
The focus in my business is service. I’m a social worker by trade and with that, connecting families with resources takes priority whether they decide to partner with us or not. When I first opened, I started developing a Resource Guide filled with local businesses and connections in the perinatal world. I took time to ask others I trusted for referrals, set up a time to speak with each of them individually and if my gut liked that interaction, I added them to our Resource Guide. This guide is sent to all of our postpartum families during follow up. I always make it clear that I am here and happy to help no matter what and with that, have had families that didn’t end up reserving placements reach out for resource referrals down the line.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I’m a big proponent and practitioner of personal development. At least 2 times a week, I take time to write out my short goals for the year, list 5 things I’m grateful for, do a little journaling, write out my top 10 affirmations for my business and read a chapter from a leadership book. It helps me feel grounded and calm and prepared. I used to do this 5 days a week and realized with the demands of raising a family and running a solopreneur business, I had to scale back. On the days I don’t do this, I listen to podcasts. My two favorite podcasters are Marie Forleo and Jasmine Star. I listen while I’m cleaning up the kitchen or folding laundry, often while driving in the car and as I cook. That way, I’m filling my mind with good ideas and still doing something for my business on my busiest days.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lakecountrynewborns.com
- Instagram: @lakecountrynewborns
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakecountrynewborns/